“The family business model is very virtuous, because it favors anchoring in the territories and long-term management”

2024-10-07 05:00:11

theThe amount of inheritance tax collected by the state has increased in France by 120% over the last ten years and the percentage of taxable inheritances has doubled in the same period. Inheritance taxation is on average three and a half times higher than the European average.

Despite this already very heavy taxation, several voices have recently proposed to once again significantly increase the tax burden on assets, in particular that which weighs on entrepreneurial families. The Terra Nova think tank recommends « taxing the “superrich”: why and how to do it? »the non-governmental organization Oxfam is outraged « super-inheritance: the tax jackpot of the ultra-rich »as for La France insoumise (LFI), it plans to tax 100% of assets transmitted by inheritance over 12 million euros.

Assets that are neither liquid nor divisible

These proposals seem specious and dangerous to us. At first specious, because, discussing the alleged abnormality of family ownership of some very large industrial groups which represent a stock market value of several hundred billion, they end up proposing to increase taxation from much more modest levels. for example, setting the Dutreil deal at 2 million euros for Oxfam. It is therefore actually the middle classes and the majority of small and medium-sized French family businesses that are targeted.

These proposals are above all dangerous, because their implementation would inevitably lead to a rapid destruction of the French industrial fabric and a serious loss of national sovereignty over our economy.

In fact, it is necessary to remember that many French companies, of all sizes, are still family-owned and that this model is very virtuous as it favors their anchoring in the territories and the long-term management of their development.

Read also | Taxes: Should inheritance taxes be increased or reduced?

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However, for a company to remain family-owned, the tax burden on shareholders must not prevent them from maintaining control of the capital. And the peculiarity of the assets of these families lies in the fact that it is permanently invested in the company, which often represents more than 90% of their total assets, and that this assets is neither liquid nor divisible.

Theoretical value

We also note that although the valuation of some companies may seem important in absolute terms, be aware that this value is particularly fluctuating and remains theoretical until they are sold. Only the salary and especially the dividend paid by the company can allow these families to pay wealth taxes (wealth tax and inheritance tax), knowing that the dividend itself is reduced by the tax due on the distribution.